“The Dream of Dreams”Devotion In Motion
Monday Meditation
07/09/21
Daniel 2:24 36
“Therefore Daniel went to Arioch, whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon. He went and said thus to him: “Do not destroy the wise men of Babylon; take me before the king, and I will tell the king the interpretation.” Then Arioch quickly brought Daniel before the king, and said thus to him, “I have found a man of the captives of Judah, who will make known to the king the interpretation.” “The king answered and said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, “Are you able to make known to me the dream which I have seen, and its interpretation?” Daniel answered in the presence of the king, and said, “The secret which the king has demanded, the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, and the soothsayers cannot declare to the king. But there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets, and He has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days.
Your dream, and the visions of your head upon your bed, were these “As for you, O king, thoughts came to your mind while on your bed, about what would come to pass after this; and He who reveals secrets has made known to you what will be. But as for me, this secret has not been revealed to me because I have more wisdom than anyone living, but for our sakes who make known the interpretation to the king, and that you may know the thoughts of your heart. “You, O king, were watching; and behold, a great image! This great image, whose splendor was excellent, stood before you; and its form was awesome. This image’s head was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. 17 You watched while a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed together, and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; the wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found. And the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.”, “This is the dream. Now we will tell the interpretation of it before the king.”
As you read this, Ironically, like any other politician, Arioch tried to take the credit, but Daniel is quick to give the credit… “There is a God in heaven who reveals secrets…” Daniel doesn’t have any prognosticating powers. What He knows God revealed. And too, he says the king’s dream and vision are for “the latter days.” This is a technical term in the Bible that speaks of the time just prior to Jesus’ second coming.
Daniel 2:37-45
“You, O king, are a king of kings. For the God of heaven has given you a kingdom, power, strength, and glory; and wherever the children of men dwell, or the beasts of the field and the birds of the heaven, He has given them into your hand, and has made you ruler over them all – you are this head of gold. But after you shall arise another kingdom inferior to yours; then another, a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth. And the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron, inasmuch as iron breaks in pieces and shatters everything; and like iron that crushes, that kingdom will break in pieces and crush all the others. Whereas you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; yet the strength of the iron shall be in it, just as you saw the iron mixed with ceramic clay. And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile. As you saw iron mixed with ceramic clay, they will mingle with the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay. And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. Inasmuch as you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold – the great God has made known to the king what will come to pass after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation is sure.”
The king saw a tall image. How high? We don’t know, but when Nebuchadnezzar tries to build a replica of what he’s seen in chapter 3, he builds it 90 feet high. Daniel sees a metallic man. He has a head of gold, chest and arms of silver, belly and thighs of bronze, legs of iron, and feet of iron mixed with clay. It’s like a robot-image. Something out of a sci-fi movie. And notice the metals are progressive. From bottom to top they get heavier. This image is top heavy! Which makes it fragile at the bottom. You’ve heard the expression, “clay feet” – this is where they get the idiom. And notice the stone, it’s “cut out without hands.” That’s another way of saying, “of supernatural origin.” The stone strikes the image in the feet, and the whole enchilada crumbles. The gold, silver, bronze, iron, and clay are crushed into dust and blown away. But in its place, the stone that struck the image becomes a great mountain. This is what Nebuchadnezzar saw, but what in the world does it mean?… Daniel also has the answer!
Nebuchadnezzar has been shown a picture of Gentile world domination. In Luke 21 Jesus also spoke of a period, which He called, “the times of the Gentiles.” Prior to 586 BC and the fall of Jerusalem, God’s kingdom on the earth was the nation Israel. God hoped she would obey His laws and be a witness to the world. God would make His people great! Israel would rule the world… But Israel failed. She fell into idolatry. So God destroyed Jerusalem, and gave the world over into Gentile control. That’s been our status ever since… And it was all predicted beforehand…
The head of gold, or Babylon, got first crack at world dominion. Their empire lasted from 605-536 BC. Next came the Medeo-Persian Empire, the arms & chest of silver. They reigned from 536-333 BC. The Greeks were next up. They were the bronze belly and thighs. They governed from 333-168 BC. Afterwards came the Romans, the legs of iron. They ruled the world from 168 BC until the 4th century AD. The Roman empire eventually split into east and west, thus the two legs of iron.
The empire in the west was ruled in Rome – the eastern in Constantinople. And each of these successive kingdoms were inferior to its predecessor. Nebuchadnezzar was the world’s most absolute despot, his whims became laws. Cyrus the Persia, had a more limited power. Once he spoke a word it became law, but he couldn’t change it if he wanted. The Law became superior to the King. Greeks and Romans toyed with a representative form of government – and introduced democratic ideas. There are scholars who see the clay in this vision as modern democracy – a government by the people and for the people – clay being a symbol of humanity.
And as with the rest of the vision, democracy coming last is the weakest and riskiest form of government. During Colonial days, Alexander Tyler wrote these words about the fall of the ancient Athenian republic. “A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the public treasury. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most money from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s great civilizations has been two hundred years. These nations have progressed through the following sequence: from bondage to spiritual faith, from spiritual faith to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependency, from dependency back to bondage.” You can see where we are in this progression.
It could be that the “clay mixed with iron” is a time when democracy ceases and dictatorships emerge. This is how the Gentile government concludes. Now what happens to the legs of iron, or the Roman Empire? Who conquered Rome? The answer, No one! Rome wasn’t conquered from without, it crumbled from within. Yet this is the empire that’s pictured last. The feet of this image are iron mixed with clay – the iron of Rome mixed with the clay or rest of humanity. Historically, as in this vision, Rome crumbled into many pieces.
For 1000 years Europe was a bunch of warring city-states. Eventually, each of Rome’s fragmented parts had its crack at world dominance… The Spanish armada ruled from the sea. British imperialism once dominated the globe. Napoleon in France, Hitler in Germany, Mussolini in Italy all have tried to unify Europe, or ancient Rome, under one flag. But what military force has been unable to achieve, economic factors will one day accomplish. Today, the two legs of old Rome, east and west are reuniting. After the fall of communism, a superstate has emerged. The European Community now corresponds with the borders of ancient Rome. Legs of iron have mixed with the clay of humanity in a Roman revival.
Today Europe, bound by the Maastricht Treaty, is one community. There’s a single currency, open borders, an integrated foreign policy, even a president. Of course, unification is not without its problems. The British exit from the EC is proof. As Nebuchadnezzar’s vision foresees, clay and iron don’t naturally adhere. Yet since 1957 and the Treaty Of Rome unstoppable forces have overcome ancient hostilities to create a unified Europe. Ancient Rome is being reassembled. And why is it happening? It’s because God is at the helm. He’s moving pieces on the board – manipulating nations until they’re aligned as His prophets predicted. Jesus told us in Luke 21:24, “Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.”
In June 1967 Israelis paratroopers took control of the Old City of Jerusalem. Jerusalem was back in Jewish hands for the first time since 586 BC. It was a sign – the times of the Gentiles, the period of Gentile world domination – is now drawing to a close. Nebuchadnezzar’s image is about to crumble. The reunification of Europe is also setting the stage. Europe will eventually take the form of a ten nation confederacy. The image that Nebuchadnezzar sees in Chapter 2 has two feet – thus ten toes. We’ll see in Daniel 7 the ten toes represent ten European nations.
And it’s during the days of this ten-state, revived Roman empire, that the Stone, (cut out without hands, of supernatural origin) will strike the image and replace it with a mighty mountain, that is the Kingdom of God. Throughout Scripture the Messiah is represented as a stone! Here Jesus is the stone of supernatural origin. No man was responsible for His birth or for His rise. And in the days of this revived Roman empire, Jesus will return to Earth, strike the Gentile kingdoms, and replace them finally with His reign and God’s kingdom. This is why we get excited over what’s going on with the European Community, and the talk of a New Rome, it’s a sign that Jesus’ coming is right around the corner.
One day a group of scientists got together and decided that man had come a long way and no longer needed God. So they picked one scientist to go and tell Him that they were done with Him.The scientist walked up to God and said, “God, we’ve decided that we no longer need you. We’re to the point that we can clone people and do many miraculous things, so why don’t you just go on and get lost.”
God listened very patiently and kindly to the man. After the scientist was done talking, God said, “Very well, how about this?
Let’s say we have a man-making contest.” To which the scientist replied, “Okay, great! But God added, “Now, we’re going to do this just like I did back in the old days with Adam.”The scientist said, “Sure, no problem” and bent down and grabbed himself a handful of dirt! God looked at him and said, “No, no, no. You go get your own dirt!”
This must have been the way the King felt after Daniel revealed the dream to him. God revealed what only God knew. And the King’s response was to fall down and worship him.
Amen
Victor Tafoya
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